In recent years, writer Jayanth Kaikini is the most discussed poet, short stories writer, besides being film script writer and lyricist in Kannada. Renowned film maker Girish Kasaravalli has made a film Illiralaare Allige Hogalaare based on his short story Halina Meese written in 1992. Jayanth is the recipient of the prestigious DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2018, for his translated work, No Presents Please. This is the first time that a translated work has won this prize. Translated by Tejaswini Niranjana, it is vivid, yet full of contradictions, spirited, yet lonely, embattled, yet big hearted.
Bogaseyalli Male (Rain in a hand cup), an 86-minute documentary made by Nithin Mysuru, traces the way Mumbai influenced and inspired Jayanth, where he spent a good part of his life. The documentary, which also captures the various creative faces of Jayanth, spreading across over 40 years, was recently uploaded on the YouTube and is being widely watched and appreciated.
This documentary -- titled after a collections of essays by Jayanth -- attempts to capture the human side of this most charming Kannada writer, who is a poet, a short story writer, TV anchor, lyricist, script writer, playwright, editor and translator. Writer Samvartha Sahil has scripted the documentary, while, sound, camera and lighting are being handled by Nitin, Anirudha Subrahamanya and Ravindra Parameshwarappa respectively. This lyrical documentary is produced by Avinash Kamath.
Nitin attempted to capture the multifaceted personality of Jayanth through the thoughts shared by renowned people from the creative world. G. S Amur, Vivek Shanbhag, Prakash Raj, Ananth Nag, M S Sriram, friends from Mumbai, Atul Tiwari, Dr Nagaraj Huilgol, Vyasarao Ninjur Uma Rao, and music composer Ma No Murthy are some of them. The documentary has been extensively shot in various beautiful locations of Gokarna, where Kaikini grew up. Jayanth's contribution to the Kannada literary world scrolls on the scene like the credits, accompanied by background music.
The documentary opens in the streets of Gokarna, with Kaikini walking and speaking to people. A woman selling her wares on the temple street of Gokarna, smiles at Jayanth and asks him about the next film. For which Jayanth, with his signature humour, replies: “Gokarna Mahatme!”.
Jayanth earned the love and affection of the readers and cine goers, because of his unique way of using the Kannada language, rich with images and details. Through his songs "Anisutide Yako Indu" , "Aralutiru Jeevada Geleya" of Mungaru Male (2006) directed by Yogaraj Bhat, Kaikini touched the heart of cine buffs, who were waiting for a different kind lyrics. Through his song, "Anisuthide Yako Indu" Jayanth who was, till then, known only to literature buffs, became a household name.
"Bogaseyalli Male" captures the four decade journey of Jayanth from Gokarna to Mumbai to Bengaluru. It can be described as an attempt to capture hundreds of reflections of Jayanth in a time frame. The poet looks back and recollects his journey from his first poetry collection, Rangadindishtu Doora to his present day writings and his engagement in various creative forms.
Ask Avinash Kamath on the process of documenting Jayanth's creative journey and he goes back to six years ago. The idea of making documentary on Jayanth struck him while organising a programme on his film songs. Nitin and Anidurdh joined hands in his endeavour. “We did not have any idea of making the documentary. We had hours of footage shot. The format of documentary evolved on the editing table," he says. The promo of the documentary was released in 2014 at a function organised to confer award to Kaikini at Shivarama Karanta Bhavana Kota in Udupi district. "Our teacher Samvartha Sahil offered the documentary a script form,” he explains.
Thought the first print was ready in 2015 itself, the creative team had to wait for four years for its release. Avinash admits that it is not easy to capture Kaikini’s multifaceted personality. “Kaikini himself does not want to live in a framework. He always advises to accept life as it comes and move on. Restricting a writer of such calibre to some 80 plus minutes is really a challenging task. As far as possible, we tried to capture the spirit of Kaikini’s life and work. Like the title of the documentary, it is just rain collected in a hand cup," he feels.
Critically analysing the reason for the popularity of Jayanth, Vivek Shanbhag says that Jayanth is not just popular because of his entry into the world of cinema. "To become popular one should have his own strength and a relation with society. Most importantly, people have to accept the person as their own," he says. Jayanth’s Mumbai friends explain how their friend perceived the maximum city and people who inhibit the bustling metropolis. Shantha Kaikini, Jayanth's mother speaks with warmth of how she sent poems and cartoons written by Jayanth to magazines, secretly. Smitha Kaikini, Jayanth's wife, recalls how he would come home after a long day at work, and write the entire night.
Bogaseyalli Male could perhaps have been much more engaging in capturing “the actual Jayanth” than who Jayanth is. However, it does make a huge effort in understanding Jayanth.